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Subaru Telescope Images Attract "AstroDay" Participants

July 11, 2022
Last updated: July 1, 2023

On May 14, 2022, the annual AstroDay event was held at the Prince Kuhio Plaza shopping mall in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawai`i. The event had been canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 direct contact was avoided, and only hands-on astronomy kits were handed out at the mall shops. After a three year hiatus, the in-person event is back!

Face masks are no longer mandatory in the State of Hawai`i, and there are no restrictions on the number of people at gatherings. However in light of the continuing number of infections, Subaru Telescope provided activities with minimal contact at its booth, focusing on digital content. The dataset of HSC-SSP, an extensive survey program using the ultra-wide-field prime focus camera Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) mounted on the Subaru Telescope, is partially open to the public. On the hscMap website, anyone can freely explore the vast, high-quality cosmic images taken with HSC. When hscMap was projected on a large screen, people showed interest and gathered. On the following day, the BIG ISLAND NOW news published an AstroDay article with a large photo of children and adults looking at the hscMap demo at the head of the article. The photo shows the broad appeal of hscMap.

Subaru Telescope Images Attract &quotAstroDay" Participants Figure

Figure 1: A child fascinated by the HSC image on the large screen. (Credit: NAOJ)

Other fun activities included virtual space travel demonstrations using Mitaka, the Four-Dimensional Digital Universe viewer developed by NAOJ's 4D2U project, and day-crew member in his safety harness talking about his work at the summit facility. We also distributed "Subaru Telescope@Home" flyers with information about fun online content: Subaru Kids, GALAXY CRUISE (a citizen science project of NAOJ), and the "Subaru-Asahi Sky Camera" live streaming 24/7 from Maunakea in collaboration with Asahi-Shimbun newspaper.

Subaru Telescope Images Attract &quotAstroDay" Participants Figure2

Figure 2: (Upper left) A child enjoys space travel on Mitaka, skillfully manipulating the game controller while supervised by a staff member. (Upper right) A day-crew member wearing a harness explaining his work. (Bottom left) Handouts such as "Subaru Telescope@Home" flyers, coloring sheets, and postcards were also popular goods. (Bottom right) A staff member introducing the Subaru Telescope at the mall's center stage. (Credit: NAOJ)

Every year at AstroDay, the Maunakea Coin Contest awards ceremony is held at the mall’s center stage. The contest was initiated in 2011 with the catchphrase "Design a commemorative coin for Maunakea" by Kumiko Usuda-Sato, Project Research Staff Member of Subaru Telescope at that time, as a Maunakea Astronomy Outreach Committee (MKAOC) annual event. "With the outreach committee members, I held the Cosmic Poster Contest during the International Year of Astronomy 2009 for K-12 students on the Big Island of Hawai`i. I was impressed to see the winners and their families so delighted at the awards ceremony, and then initiated the coin contest in 2011," says Usuda-Sato. She left Hawai`i for Japan in 2013 and returned to Hilo in 2021 as a Public Outreach Specialist of Subaru Telescope. "While I was in Japan, Nadine Manset, a resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and chair of MKAOC, continued the annual contest. It is like a dream come true to be involved in the coin contest again after returning to Hawai`i," she continues joyfully.

Subaru Telescope Images Attract &quotAstroDay" Participants Figure3

Figure 3: The 2022 Maunakea coin designed by the grand prize winner Luche Angeline Mardie Asuncion Ganot, in the 11th grade at Pahoa High and Intermediate School. (Credit: Maunakea Coin Contest Committee)

While not quite the same as before the pandemic, the nine staff members at the Subaru Telescope booth enjoyed direct communication with the participants. Subaru Telescope will continue to share the fun of astronomy with the local community and inspire children to consider their future career opportunities.

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